


You Ring Some, You Lose Some

by BingeWriter



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Almost Crack, F/M, Humor, If Arrow Were A Sitcom, Marriage Proposal, Seriously this went in some weird directions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-23
Updated: 2015-10-23
Packaged: 2018-04-27 17:19:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5057182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BingeWriter/pseuds/BingeWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity proposes first. Oliver is not prepared. Disaster and hilarity ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Ring Some, You Lose Some

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimers: I did not consider any spoilers while writing this. Also, I am fully aware that it makes no sense. But it was a ton of fun to write so I don't care.
> 
> Believe it or not, this was going to be short. I was going to post it with my one-shots, but I decided to let it breathe. Anyway. Enjoy!

            He and Felicity had a ritual: after a long day of campaigning and fighting criminals and running a multi-billion dollar corporation, they would sit on the balcony with two full glasses of wine and just…talk. Usually Felicity would ramble about her day, regaling him with stories about her stand-offs with the board. Oliver would just smile, happy that she was happy. And sometimes they’d talk about Thea, or Digg, or Sara, though they never let it get too serious, always drifting into silence, leaning into each other, enjoying just being together.

            Tonight, they sat in the biting autumn air, watching goose bumps appear on Oliver’s arm. Felicity was shivering. He tucked her against him and she burrowed closer, taking a large gulp of her wine. “I thought we’d do this every night for the rest of forever, but I guess I forgot about winter,” she mumbled into his shirt. And then she stiffened, pulling back a little. “Whoa, I just said forever.”

            Oliver had noticed that, his heart skipping tightly in his chest, and it had felt so right to hear those words. But now he found himself unable to speak. He just swallowed.

            Her eyes danced across his face. “I mean, I just sort of assumed there would be a forever, but I guess we never talked about it? About us, I don’t know, getting married, or…Well, maybe not _married_. It’s just a document, and it’s an outdated social construct. I don’t even know how you feel about it. How _do_ you feel about it?”

            “I…”

            “What I’m trying to say is, do you want to get married? Is that where this is headed? Because when I look ahead, I think I see forever.”

            Oliver cleared his throat, forcing himself to find his voice. “Felicity…” he croaked. “Is this you proposing to me?”

            Felicity’s face had relaxed now, and her lips twitched up into a smile. “I think I am. Proposing to you.”

            He’d thought about this moment a lot, planned for it even, though he’d been the one doing the asking. He’d written a speech in his head and carried around that ring for weeks. Even in his wildest imaginings, she’d hesitated before saying yes, and the surety shining in her eyes at this moment left him breathless. But he didn’t carry that ring with him anymore. It was too much to hope for, what with getting back in his suit and running for Mayor. He’d pushed that dream away indefinitely, even though yes, when he looked at her, all he saw was forever, endless evenings sipping wine on a balcony, though maybe not in the winter. He needed to tell her this—no, to _show_ her that he’d thought about this as much as she had, maybe more. He sprung to his feet and strode inside, towards the little bowl of stones where he’d buried his dreams.

            It wasn’t on the table. “Felicity,” he said, fighting to keep his voice panic-free, “Where is that bowl of stones we put on the table?”

            “I put it on the kitchen counter. I was going to put something in it. Like, bamboo. Oliver, what are you doing?”

            Oliver was emptying the stupid bowl and spreading the marbles even further apart, like that would help. The ring wasn’t in there. No, of course it wasn’t there. He’d taken it out of there. And put it…

            He ran past Felicity, who was standing in the still-open French window, hugging herself. “Oliver?” she said again, but there wasn’t time to explain. He found the laundry hamper in their bedroom and upended it. Which pair of pants had he been wearing four days ago? He dug through wrinkled t-shirts and balled socks and Felicity’s bras, pulling out every pair of his pants and sticking his hands deep in the pockets. Or maybe he had taken it out of his pocket, maybe put it back in its box, the box he kept in his bedside drawer. He emptied the contents of the drawer on the bed, found the little box, but there was no ring inside.

            Trying vainly to stave off the panic, he paced back and forth. He had put it in his pocket for sure; he remembered that now. And then he’d gone…to the lair. Of course he had. He’d probably put it in the pocket of his Green Arrow suit. Now that he thought about it, he remembered doing that. He grabbed a jacket out of his closet and walked out, putting it on one arm at a time. “I’ll be back,” he yelled over his shoulder, not waiting for her response.

            He tore through the streets on his motorcycle, leaning forward as if that would make him go faster. It was very late and the roads were dark empty, but his heart felt so full. It felt like he was speeding into something bright and hopeful. He grinned to himself as he rounded a corner: she wanted to marry him. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, and he couldn’t get back fast enough.

            He expected the lair to be empty when he arrived, but his sister was in there, punching a training dummy. He absorbed the scene before him: her bow was cast aside on the floor, several snapped arrows were scattered in a pile, and two other dummies lay snapped on the floor, splinters sticking out. “Thea?” he called out carefully.

            She turned around. “Oh, it’s you. I didn’t think anyone would come back here. I’m just…” she shrugged, “practicing my control. Or lack thereof. What are you doing back here?”

            “I’m just getting something,” he said vaguely, heading over to his costume display.

            “Something you need to get right now, in the middle of the night?”

            “Yep.” Oliver started pulling his costume off the mannequin. Honestly, it took more trouble than it was worth, putting it on and taking it off every time he needed it, but there was something about the look of it, towering over the rest of the lair, that made him feel legitimate in a way he’d never felt as the Hood. Cisco had built a few pouches into the lining of his jacket, and he was sure that he would have put the ring into one of those.

            “What are you looking for?”

            He looked up to see Thea right in front of him, arms crossed. “Something that I left in one of these pockets,” he said evasively. He unzipped the last one and stuck his fingers as deep into it as he could, but there was nothing there except a little lint.

            “Ollie, whatever you’re looking for is clearly very important, and if you just tell me what it is, I might be able to help you,” Thea was saying, but Oliver couldn’t pay attention. The panic had returned, stronger than ever.

            “Thea, your fingers are smaller than mine. Can you poke in these pockets for me?” he asked tensely.

            “Only if you tell me what you’re looking for.”

            He looked at her narrowed eyes and sighed. “It’s a ring.”

            He’d guessed that this information would inspire some kind of reaction, but he hadn’t expected her voice to go quite that high. “A…ring? You’re getting engaged? To Felicity?”

            “Yes.”

            “Since when?” she demanded, shoving him slightly.

            “Since not yet,” he said repressively. “Seeing as I can’t find the ring.”

            “And when were you going to tell me?”

            Oliver opened his mouth and then realized he didn’t have an answer.

            She shoved him again. “What the hell, Ollie? I’m your sister!”

            “Well…”

            “I mean, I knew you guys were serious, but I didn’t know you were spend-the-rest-of-your-lives-together serious.”

            “We are.”

            “Well, you could’ve told me that! So that I could’ve gotten to know her better. We could’ve had brunch, or a girl’s night. Now I just feel like a jerk who doesn’t even know her future sister-in-law.”

            “I’m sorry,” he offered. “I didn’t know this meant so much to you.”

            She sniffed, and then softened. “You do look happy though.”

            “I am,” Oliver said, unable to suppress a smile.

            She nodded, and then to his surprise, threw her arms around him. He hugged her back, his smile wider now. He hadn’t fully realized how much he needed her support for the life he’d chosen, and yes, he should’ve told her before. She pulled back and tilted her head at him. “Look at my brother, settling down.”

            “Thank you,” he said sincerely.

            “Save your thanks for when I find your ring.” She held her hand out for the jacket and he gave it to her, and then turned to wrestle the pants off the mannequin. “Seriously, why do you put it on that thing.”

            “I don’t know,” he admitted. The pockets of the leather pants were stiff, and he struggled to reach into the corners. “Can you…”

            “Yeah.” Thea grabbed the pants from him. “It’s not in the jacket. And why didn’t you just put it back in the box?”

            Oliver glared up at her, hand stuck inside one of his leather boots. “Because…because I didn’t think I’d lose it.”

            “Why did you even carry it around with you?”

            He sat back on the cold cement floor, and just like that, it all came back to him. “It was after the gala, a couple weeks ago. Remember? It was a really…difficult night. It was the first time I put myself out there like that, and the response was…mixed, at best. But Felicity, she knew exactly what to say. She was incredible. And then at the end of the night, this group of ladies came up to us and said she was ‘the perfect candidate’s wife.’ She laughed it off, but I just got this really clear picture of us, twenty, thirty, forty years from now. We’d go to galas, and maybe she’d take me to some of her work events, and she’d charm everyone like she always does, and I just thought, we could do this. We could really do this. And so I picked the ring out of the bowl of marbles I had stuffed it into and put it in my pocket. And then I forgot about it. And the next time I wore those pants, I found it again, and I moved it to my Green Arrow suit when I went out that night. That was the night we went after Damien Darhk again, remember? That went terribly. It went so terribly that I just gave up on ever proposing.”

            There was quiet for a couple minutes after his uncharacteristically long speech, and Oliver was half sure she’d follow up with a tirade about how stupid it was for him to link his failure as a vigilante to his life with Felicity, but all she said was, “Bowl of marbles?”

            Oliver was about to explain when he remembered that there wasn’t a real explanation for that. He finished checking the other boot, and then held them out to Thea, who looked at him like he was insane.

            “You expect me to stick my hand in your shoes?”

            He blinked, and then threw them aside. “It’s not in there.” He leaned his face into his hands. “I fucked up.”

            “Maybe it’s around here somewhere. On the floor.” He felt Thea moving around near him, shoes scuffing the floor. Then she walked back to him and rubbed his shoulder. “Ollie, you didn’t fuck up. It’s just a ring, you know. If we never find it, you can just tell Felicity what happened. I’m sure she’ll think it’s hilarious.”

            Oliver sat up, energized again. “Okay, but how does something just fall out of a zippered pocket?” He pulled out his phone and dialed Barry’s number by heart.

            “ _Oliver_?”

            “Barry, can you get Cisco on the line for me?”

            “ _Wow, you just assumed I’d be at Star Labs in the middle of the night_.”

            “Barry? This is kind of important.”

            “ _Alright, alright. But I’m making it a video call_.”

            Oliver sighed and leaned the phone on one of his boots. Barry’s grinning face appeared on the screen, and a couple moments later Cisco joined him, looking confused. “Hi Cisco.”

            “ _Hey Oliver. I saw your broadcast. Great comeback. But maybe you should leave the naming to me next time_.”

            Oliver elected to ignore this. “I have a question about my suit.”

            “ _You like it, huh? Felicity said you liked it. She also said you’d call me and thank me, but I get it, you’re busy. But we should catch up sometime. Maybe you guys could come back to Central City? Help us with another case_?” Cisco looked around and then leaned forward. “ _Make sure you bring the Black Canary_.”

            Oliver frowned in confusion.

            Barry stuck his head forward so his face took up most of the screen. “ _How’s Felicity_?”

            “She’s fine. This is actually sort of about her. Cisco, do you think anything could fall out of any of the zippered pockets you put in my jacket?”

            “ _Not if you zipped it up. Well…how big are we talking_?”

            Oliver indicated the size with his thumb and forefinger.

            Cisco mimicked the gesture and looked at his own fingers in confusion. “ _What even did you put in there_?”

            “ _Must be important if you’re calling us in the middle of the night_.”

            Oliver hesitated and then Thea snorted behind him. “Seriously, Ollie? Just tell them.”

            “ _Hi, Thea_!” chirped Barry.

            “Hi, Barry.” Thea nudged Oliver aside and sat down, crossing her legs. “It’s a ring.”

            They gasped almost in unison, and then, to Oliver’s further dismay, Barry blurred and ran away.

            Cisco barely even flinched at the movement, though his hair blew in all directions. “ _A ring? Like for Felicity? It is for Felicity, right_?”

            “Yes it’s for Felicity,” said Oliver, amused in spite of himself.

            Barry blurred back into view, grinning like an idiot. “ _I just told_ everyone.”

            Oliver almost face palmed. “Barry, you can’t just tell everyone!”

            “ _Why not? They were really excited_.”

            “I didn’t even ask her yet. Remember, I lost the ring?”

            “ _Oh, right_.” He ran off again, coming back moments later. “ _It’s okay, I told them not to say anything_.” He paused. “ _One or two texts might have got out though_.”

            Oliver sighed. “It doesn’t matter. Cisco, the ring?”

            “ _Well, I guess it could’ve fallen out if there was a hole in the pocket_.”

            “Can that happen?”

            “ _Hey, don’t blame me. You heroes go through your suits like they’re made out of paper. Especially if you get stabbed a lot, which, let’s face it, you probably do_.”

            Thea slapped him on the shoulder. “You got stabbed!”

            Oliver shrugged. “Yeah, but in the leg.”

            “ _Yeah, no biggie_ ,” Cisco said loudly, and they all turned to stare at him. “ _What_?”

            “ _I still can’t believe you put it in your pocket and not in, I don’t know, a box?_ ” Barry cut in.

            “Well, Ollie likes to live on the edge,” snarked Thea. She’d been fumbling with his jacket, and all of a sudden she said, “Oh.” Oliver looked over and saw her poke her pinky finger through what was clearly a hole in one of his zippered pockets.

            Oliver squeezed his eyes shut, as if not looking at the hole would make it go away. He opened his eyes. It was still there.

            “ _Ooh, that sucks_ ,” said Cisco sympathetically.

            “It’s okay,” said Thea, elbowing him gently. “I said I was going to find this thing, and we _will_ find it. “

            Oliver nodded for her benefit, though he knew in his gut it was pointless.

            Barry cleared his throat. “ _We’ll leave you to it then. I just gotta say, I’m really happy for you guys. But I also gotta say, remember the time you said you would never get the girl? And then the other time you said it? And the time you heavily implied it_?”

            Oliver ducked his head to hide his smile. “Thank you, Barry. And thanks, Cisco. For the suit.” He leaned forward, reaching for his phone.

            “ _Seriously, I’m so excited for you. Tell Felicity I said hi. Come visit_!” Barry yelled.

            Oliver shook his head and ended the call. Thea was still pushing her finger in and out of the tear. “You know, I don’t think a ring could’ve fallen out of here easily. It would’ve taken some kind of intense movement.”

            “You mean like fighting? Which I do all the time?” Oliver asked wryly.

            “You know what I mean. I think we can start looking where we fought Darhk.”

            Oliver let her pull him up, but protested quietly, “Speedy, there’s no point.”

            “Well, there’s no harm in looking, is there? Come on, Oliver. For Felicity.”

            “Alright,” he sighed. “Back to the scene of the crime.”

***

            The abandoned warehouse where they’d faced off against Darhk two weeks ago was less abandoned than they expected. Police cars surrounded it, along with enough flashlight-armed cops that it felt like seven at night instead of one in the morning.

            “What the hell?” Thea demanded.

            Oliver just shrugged, and then immediately bumped into the person he least wanted to see right now.

            “Queen,” grunted Captain Quentin Lance. “Not like you to show up after a crime’s committed. Usually you’re the one committing it.”

            “What’s going on?” Thea demanded.

            Lance looked at Thea and then back at Oliver. “Great. You brought your sister? Don’t tell me. She’s the red one. She took Harper’s place, didn’t she. You really get them while they’re young, don’t you.”

            Oliver exhaled in annoyance, but decided not to respond. “We fought some criminals here two weeks ago.  Don’t tell me they’re back.”

            “I always said there would be a day they’d run out of abandoned warehouses and then have to repeat a few. But if you didn’t know about the crime, then what the hell are you doing here?”

            Oliver glanced at his sister, and she stared pointedly at him. He really didn’t want to ask Lance for his help, but as he looked around he could see five different CSI’s toting plastic bags filled with evidence, and he knew he had no choice. “I had something in my pocket two weeks ago and then I dropped it here.”

            Lance glared at him for a full second before saying, rudely, “So?”

            “We were wondering if any of your forensic people found anything,” Thea said, voice carefully pleasant.

            “Lemme get this straight. You expect me to help you?” Lance snorted and started striding away from them.

            Oliver and Thea looked at each other and then followed. “Look, Captain, it’s really important,” Oliver tried.

            Lance snorted again. “I’m sure it is. Important to who?”

            Thea elbowed Oliver, and when he didn’t answer, blurted out, “It’s a ring, okay? Ollie dropped a ring.”

            Lance actually raised an eyebrow at that. “Huh. A ring.”

            “Yeah,” said Oliver, though he wished desperately that Thea would stop telling everybody.

            “Why didn’t you put it in a box?”

            He just nodded. “You are not the first to tell me that.”

            “So the Green Arrow’s getting hitched, huh? Don’t tell me…your computer girl. Oh God, it’s not Laurel, right?”

            Oliver nearly tripped at that, and Thea yelled, “Ugh, no!”

            “And you went and dropped the ring? That’s marriage material right there.”

            Yet another statement to which Oliver could not formulate a response.

            To Oliver’s surprise, Lance had actually been leading them to the group of police officers clustered near what they could now see was a body on the ground, but now he stopped and turned around. “Look. I know you say you’ve changed, but…” Lance took an awkward breath. “I like Felicity. You be good to her.”

            Oliver blinked in surprise. “I will.”

            Lance nodded and then called out to the nearest officers to join them. “Hey, you guys seen a ring lying around here?”

            “Nah,” said one of them.

            “Are you sure?” Oliver could hear the desperation in his own voice. “It’s an engagement ring. With diamonds. I don’t know how to describe it more specifically.”

            “No, man, sorry. We combed through the area and didn’t find nothing like that,” said the other one, not without sympathy.

            Thea turned to Lance. “Can we at least look around for a bit?”

            “You’re gonna do it no matter what I say,” he grunted, and then seemed to give in a little, softening. “Alright, go ahead.”

            Thea started tugging him away, as if convinced Lance would change his mind, but Oliver looked at the man who he’d called an ally and an enemy an equal number of times and said, “Thank you.”

            Lance just dismissed him with a wave, but Oliver couldn’t help but feel hopeful.

            The inside of the warehouse was mostly empty of cops, although many places were roped off with caution tapes. “What happened here?” Oliver said softly.

            Thea shook her head. “We will definitely worry about it, but later.”

            He tried to shake off his sense of responsibility and looked around, spotting a broken window. “I think that’s where we burst in.”

            “Right. And then I went after a group of guys over there.”

            Oliver tracked Thea’s finger with his eyes. “And I jumped down and engaged Darhk.”

            “Yeah I remember. That was…rough.”

            “Thanks.” They walked to the spot, looking at the dusty floor, even though it was clearly empty. Oliver sighed. “Okay, moving on.”

            “No, wait.” Thea crouched down suddenly, and then stood back up. She did this a couple of times, and he grew more and more confused.

            “Speedy?”

            “No, I remember something about this spot. After the battle. I think I saw Diggle walk over here. I think…he saw something on the ground and picked it up.”

            Thea’s smile was wide, but Oliver just shook his head, not wanting to get his hopes up. “Speedy, we can’t. It’s the middle of the night.”

            “Like that’s ever stopped you before,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

            He half wanted to keep arguing, but her enthusiasm was infectious. And man, had it been a long time since he’d seen her so carefree, and if this would keep the smile on her face... He was sure of one thing, though. Diggle would not be happy about this.

                                                            ***

            Diggle was not happy about this. Although it had been nearly a month they’d officially made up with a ceremonial handshake while Felicity watched approvingly, things could still get a little awkward. They were definitely not on show-up-at-the-door-in-the-middle-of-the-night terms, a fact that Diggle pointed out almost immediately.

            “We’re so sorry to wake you,” Thea said, as sweetly as she could, and Diggle let out a reluctant sigh.

            “Actually, my eighteen-month-old did that, moments before you got here,” he admitted. “What’s the problem?”

            “Remember when we fought Darhk a couple weeks ago?” Oliver asked.

            “Yeah,” said Digg warily.

            “Thea said she saw you pick something up after the fight.” He watched Diggle’s face carefully as he continued. “I was wondering if it was a ring. An engagement ring. Because I think I might have dropped it.”

            Diggle’s expression was unreadable. Then, abruptly, he walked off into his apartment, leaving his door invitingly open.

            Oliver followed at a safe distance, standing nervously two steps in. Thea carefully closed the door behind them.

            Digg came back momentarily, and he had something in his hand. He held it out, the diamonds glinting even in the low light of the room.

            Oliver sucked in a breath, stretching a hand out to take it. Once it was in his hand, he felt himself sag, releasing tension he hadn’t realized he’d been holding in all this time. And he could see it on Felicity’s finger, see the long years ahead of them; kids, maybe, hopefully, and mortgages and good days and bad days and…forever. He could see all of it reflected on the shine of the ring, but that, he’d never really lost. After all, it was just a ring.

            “That’s Mom’s ring,” Thea gasped. He turned to her, wondering suddenly if he should’ve asked her before taking it, but all she said was, “I’m glad someone’s going to wear it.”

            “Thank you,” Oliver told Digg, slipping the ring into his pocket, and then immediately taking it back out. Maybe he’d just hold it.

            “It’s nothing. I should’ve figured it was yours.” There was a warm look on Digg’s face, the likes of which he hadn’t seen directed at him in much too long. “Look, Oliver, I know things haven’t been the same between us for months now, but you and Felicity, you’re my family.”

            Oliver just nodded, blinking forcefully so that he wouldn’t tear up.

            “And seeing you two together, it just gives me so much joy. Congratulations, man, and good luck.”

            It was almost impossible not to tear up at that, so Oliver just wordlessly held out his arms. Digg stepped into the hug without hesitation. They separated quickly, and Digg kindly averted his eyes so that Oliver could compose his face. “I’ll let you get back to sleeping.”

            “And you have a girlfriend to propose to,” Thea reminded.

            Oliver felt that grin return, the one that he couldn’t possibly fight off his face, and, thanking Digg one more time, he and his sister left him to try to convince a suddenly restless Baby Sara that it was long past her bedtime.

***

            Oliver dropped Thea off at Laurel’s, much to her protest. She wanted to watch the proposal, she said. “Speedy, it’s the middle of the night,” Oliver said exasperatedly. “She’ll probably be asleep.”

            “Fine. But you’re gonna give me an exact rundown,” Thea said sternly, before hugging him again. “Go get her.”

            He flew home, planning the speech all over again in his head. Hopefully she’d still be awake. He hadn’t been entirely honest with Thea; Felicity usually was awake at this hour, typing away on her laptop even as her yawns grew longer and louder, until he practically had to drag her to bed. She’d be at her laptop, and he’d kneel down beside her, and hold the ring out, and what did he really need to say? She’d understand. She always understood.

            And it was a total shock when he walked into the loft to find all the lights out. “Felicity?” he called out softly. There was no response. He swallowed his disappointment. She had to be asleep. He walked as quietly as he was able to their bedroom, leaning over the sheets to press a kiss to her head, but the lump he thought was Felicity just turned out to be the pile of laundry he’d dumped on the bed earlier, and he straightened in confusion.

            “Felicity?” The bathroom was empty, and there wasn’t even a glimmer of light in the living room to indicate a phone or a tablet. The kitchen was empty, but why he bothered checking there, he didn’t know.

            He was genuinely worried now. He picked up his phone to call her, but his had run out of charge. He swore. Where could she have gone in the middle of the night? “Felicity!” he yelled one more time, letting the concern creep into his tone.

            “Oliver,” said a faint voice from behind the couch. And then Oliver spotted a pair of feet with pink nail polish, gleaming white in a ray of moonlight. He walked around the sofa to find Felicity lying face-up on the floor. Her hair was loose in a ring around her head and her glasses were nowhere to be found.

            “What are you doing down there?”

            “Just lying here,” she said thickly.

            “On the floor?” he asked, unable to hide his amusement. He knelt down next to her, put a hand almost reflexively on her forehead. “You okay?”

            “I finished the bottle of wine,” she mumbled. “But I’m mostly sober now. Which is disappointing.” Her phone buzzed from next to her head, and she slid it across the room without looking at it. “And people keep congratulating me for no reason!”

            Oliver stared as her phone thumped gently into the far wall. “Did Felicity Smoak just throw her phone at the wall?”

            She squeezed her eyes shut. “Go away.”

            “What?” He shook his head in confusion. “No, Felicity, I need to talk to you about something.”

            “Oliver we don’t have to talk about this right now.”

            “But you’re going to want to hear what I have to say,” he said, a little desperately.

            She eyed him, and then sighed and struggled to sit up, leaning against the foot of the sofa.

            And the nerves were back now. He wiped his palms on his jeans and then felt for the ring to make sure it was still in his pocket (it was). “Felicity, I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone,” he started, and he saw her brow furrow, though that should not have been a surprise to her. “When you said forever earlier today, it was nothing more than I’ve been thinking about for months—years, even. And, Felicity, all I want for the rest of my life is you there, as my partner, as my friend, as my wife.” He pulled the ring out then, watching her face, feeling the smile on his.

            But she wasn’t smiling. She was slack-jawed. There were tears swimming in her eyes, and to his horror, she flopped downwards, burying her face in her lap.

            His stomach dropped. He sat there for a full minute, watching her shoulders shaking softly, resisting the urge to run his fingers through the mess of her hair. That would just make it worse. And then he couldn’t take it anymore. “Why are you crying?”

            She sat back up, flipping her hair backwards. He just noticed now that her eyes were red-rimmed, like she’d been crying earlier, too. “Because I’ve been sitting here for hours thinking you weren’t coming back.”

            That nearly left Oliver speechless. “But…I said I’d be back.”

            She let out a sarcastic laugh. “Oliver, I proposed to you and then you ran out and didn’t come back for hours. What was I supposed to think?”

            Oliver winced. “Oh.” He couldn’t do anything more but watch her. She eventually wiped her eyes, hiccupping slightly, and he put the ring down and reached out, almost cautiously, touching her gently on the cheek. She nuzzled his hand instinctively, and he tried a smile. “But you know I love you.”

            “You loved me last year too.”

            He just had to laugh at that, and that earned him a glare. “I’m sorry. But see, I misplaced the ring.” He took her hand in both of his, kissed her knuckles. “And now I’m back.”

            And she finally smiled, trembly but real. “Yes. And you want to marry me.”

            He picked the ring up again, still holding onto her hand. “But the real question is, do you want to marry me?”

            There was no hesitation. “Yes! Obviously, yes!”

            His hand wouldn’t stop shaking as he slid the ring on her finger, and then she was in his arms. He buried his face in her curls. She smelled like Felicity, but also like red wine, and he couldn’t stop smiling. He would remember this moment forever.

            She pulled away and he kissed her on the nose and then tangled his fingers in hers. The both stared at the ring on her finger, nestled in her hand. “It’s beautiful.”

            “It was my mother’s. She would’ve loved you.”

            Felicity snorted. “Actually I think she hated me.”

            He just shook his head. “That’s not possible,” he said firmly, kissing her palm.

            “It’s very possible.”

            “Felicity…”

            She just grinned and kissed him, but they had to break apart almost immediately because they were smiling too much. “I love you,” she announced.

            “I love you too. Now can we get up off the floor?”

            “Yeah.”

            He stood and then helped her up, and then immediately had to steady her as she almost tipped over.

            Felicity wrapped an arm around his neck. “Whoa. I’m a lot more drunk than I thought I was.”

            “Uh oh, did I just get a drunk ‘yes?’” Oliver teased.

            “Yes, and I will definitely change my mind in the morning if you let me fall over, future husband.”

            “I won’t let you fall over,” he promised softly. “Future wife.”

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to thank three glasses of wine and an embarrassing amount of gin for...whatever that was.
> 
> Comments would be nice :)


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